• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Phoenix Sports Today

Phoenix Sports News Continuously Updated

  • Cardinals
  • Diamondbacks
  • Coyotes
  • Basketball
    • Mercury
    • Suns
  • Soccer
  • Colleges
    • Arizona State
    • Grand Canyon University
    • Northern Arizona
    • University of Arizona

2021 Arizona Diamondbacks Player Reviews, #49, J. B. Bukauskas

November 25, 2021 by AZ Snake Pit

Relief pitcher J.B. Bukauskas #33 of the Arizona Diamondbacks stands on the mound during a day game at Dodger Stadium
Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

After coming over the the Greinke trade, Bukauskas got his first taste of the majors this season.

  • Rating: 2.44
  • Age: Turned 25 just after the end of the season.
  • 021 Stats: 17.1 IP, 24 H, 19 R, 15 ER, 4 HR, 7 BB, 14 SO, 7.79 ERA/56 ERA+
  • 2021 Earnings: Pre-arbitration
  • 2022 Status: On the Diamondbacks 40 man roster, competing for a bullpen spot.

In 2019, Mike Hazen traded future HoF’er Zach Greinke to the Astros for Corbin Martin, J. B. Bukauskas, Seth Beer, and Josh Rojas. One of these, Martin, has already gotten his review for the season, while Beer and Rojas are still upcoming in the series. Today, though, we talk about J. B. Bukauskas.

Bukaskas came to the Diamondbacks as a starter. His limited time after the trade he was a starter, and he spent his time at the 2020 alternate site as a starter. However, after getting to see him work in person for a year and a half, and to see his issues harnassing his top tier stuff, the Diamondbacks coaching staff and front office decided to try a different approach. They moved him to the bullpen full time for the first time in his career and early results paid off in spades.

From the bullpen, he had arguably the best spring training of anyone on the team, leading to several articles talking about his performance, including some national recognition, being called one of the Phenoms of Spring Training in this article . In all, he faced 12 batters in major league camp, retiring all of them and striking out nine. He was, however, cut from Major League camp about half way through. It seemed to be service time manipulation from the outside, though Lovullo said it wasn’t, citing different things that the team felt he needed to work on. In retrospect, they were probably right.

Bukauskas spent roughly the first three weeks of the season “working on stuff,” and then he made his major league debut on April 20th, coming out of the bullpen to face the Cincinnati Reds, which didn’t help the service time manipulation claims whatsoever.. It was a short outing, but he recorded the one out he was asked to get. It was the same with his next three outings, which increased to full innings by the third one. However, the rough patches came quickly after that.

The first big speedbump was his appearance against the Padres on April 28th. He ended up recording no outs, giving up four hits and three earned runs. It was easy to write it off as being one bad outing against the Padres when they were good, but it became a common theme of good outings and ineffective outings mixed together in pretty much equal parts. This continued through May 14th. After another bad outing, this time against Washington, he was placed on the IL with a right elbow flexor strain.

He returned from the IL on July 2nd, but the results hadn’t improved with the time off. Right out the gate, he gave up four runs, though none were earned, on three walks and one hit. Just like earlier, his next six appearances were a grab bag of good and ineffective. The continued struggles bought him another ticket to Reno where he spent ten days before coming up again as a part of a series of roster moves related to a COVID-19 outbreak on the team.

That final stint was short lived, however, lasting only three outings from the bullpen. the first and the last one were scoreless, with the middle resulting in two earned runs. He was optioned back down to Reno on August 5th, where he stayed for the remainder of the season, not even getting a September call up.

2022 outlook

Bukauskas looks to figure strongly into the bullpen discussions for the upcoming rebuilding season. He probably also stands to benefit as much as, if not more than, anyone on the team from the hiring of Brent Strom as pitching coach. Strom has a history of taking high potential, but currently under performing, pitchers like Bukauskas and helping them reach that next level. A perfect example is the work he did with Gerrit Cole when he went from Pittsburgh to Houston.

When Hazen discussed the move to the bullpen at the start of the ‘21 season, he did leave the option on the table of a return to the starting rotation. Given the mixed results this past season out of the bullpen, I don’t see anything that would indicate a change in course. Expect to see Bukauskas out of the bullpen in ‘22, hopefully moving more towards the promise he showed in flashes during the ‘21 season.

Filed Under: Diamondbacks

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Offense: Diamondbacks Do It Right
  • Cardinals Reacts Survey: Who wins the right guard competition for the Arizona Cardinals?
  • An open letter to Mat Ishbia regarding Chris Paul
  • An open letter to Mat Ishbia regarding Chris Paul
  • (no title)

Categories

Archives

Our Partners

All Sports

  • 247 Sports
  • ArizonaSports.com - 98.7 FM
  • Bleacher Report
  • Heat Waved
  • OurSports Central
  • The Arizona Republic
  • The Sports Fan Journal
  • USA Today

Baseball

  • Arizona Diamondbacks
  • AZ Snake Pit
  • Last Word On Baseball
  • MLB Trade Rumors
  • Venom Strikes

Basketball

  • Phoenix Suns
  • Amico Hoops
  • Basketball Insiders
  • Bright Side Of The Sun
  • High Post Hoops
  • Hoops Hype
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Last Word On Pro Basketball
  • Pro Basketball Talk
  • Real GM
  • Valley Of The Suns

Football

  • Arizona Cardinals
  • Cardinals Gab
  • Cards Wire
  • Deep Dive
  • Last Word On Pro Football
  • NFL Trade Rumors
  • Our Turf Football
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Football Talk
  • Raising Zona
  • Revenge Of The Birds
  • Words From The Birds

Hockey

  • Elite Prospects
  • Five For Howling
  • Howlin Hockey
  • Last Word On Hockey
  • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Talk
  • The Hockey Writers

Soccer

  • Last Word on Soccer
  • MLS Multiplex

College

  • AZ Desert Swarm
  • Busting Brackets
  • College Football News
  • College Sports Madness
  • Devils In Detail
  • House Of Sparky
  • Last Word On College Basketball - Univ of Arizona
  • Saturday Blitz
  • Zags Blog
  • Zona Zealots

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in